What Can You Do with a History Major?

Advice & Tips

With the help of the History Department and the Knowlton Center, Denison History majors learn about the many unexpected ways that they can use their historical skills to build careers after Denison. They learn to look for sources of information on possible careers everywhere in daily life, including newspaper articles like this one.

In this interview in the New York Times, Margaret Gurowitz, the chief historian for Johnson & Johnson, explains her role at the company and how her undergraduate History major led her into this career.

In addition to curating the company's museum, Gurowitz says, “I also oversee the company’s more than 19,000 artifacts, and decide on new acquisitions. I also maintain the company’s online museum, ourstory.jnj.com, which uses photographs, music, and audio to tell the company’s story, and the company’s historical blog, kilmerhouse.com. We also partner with other museums and institutions to make the company’s history of innovative health care better known to the public.”

And what, you might ask, would end up in the historical archives of a company like Johnson & Johnson? According to Gurowitz: “Among our artifacts are the company’s Maternity Kits, dating back to 1894, when the company first began selling kits with items such as antiseptic soap to help make childbirth safer. We also have photographs that date back more than a century and rare items such as an Art Deco First Aid Kit from the 1930s and examples of the company’s original sterile surgical dressings from 1886.”

If you're interested in learning more about the kinds of careers that History majors pursue, please come and see us on the 4th floor of Fellows Hall!